Beautiful Local Environment

The vision: Cool & green. Local plants for nature. Gardens and streets full of life.

We can all help bring our suburbs to life! At home, on our nature strips, at school, or by volunteering in our local natural places, like gullies, creeks and dunes.

Nature tips

• We love trees! Trees provide shade, cool our neighbourhoods, clean the air, lift our mood and make our streets and homes nicer places to be. We need to protect the big trees around us and plant more for the future.
• Create habitat at home. A mixture of trees, shrubs and groundcovers in your garden provides food and shelter for birds, insects and other wildlife.
• Choose local native plants. Local native (indigenous) plants are suited to the local conditions and often require less water and fertilisers. We recommend visiting a specialist native plant nursery, as 'Australian natives' are not necessarily local species.
• Support pollinators naturally. To encourage pollinators, insects and wildlife, avoid the use of chemicals. Instead plant a variety of species, especially flowering plants to attract beneficial insects. Wildlife will also appreciate a reliable source of water.
• Explore council support. Many councils provide financial assistance to property owners for the maintenance of large trees, and offer rebates for buying trees, native plants, compost bins, worm farms or more. They may also run native plant giveaways and community planting days.
• Look after your street trees. You can request a new street tree outside your place or adopt an existing one and help it thrive by giving it some extra water over summer.
• Contact your local council and ask for your nature strip to be added to their 'no spray' register, so it won't be treated with herbicides.
• Connect with nature. Get outside and experience the beauty and wonder of our natural world – even here in the suburbs there is so much nature to discover!

Some favourite nature links

• Head to your local Council website for information on local species, creating verge gardens, joining their 'no-spray' register, and finding out about street trees.
• Discover the native plants that belong in your area through the Green Adelaide interactive vegetation map.
• We also recommend the Green Adelaide Gardening Hub. Here you'll find handy guides such as the Adelaide Gardens (native) Planting Guide, Coastal Gardens Planting Guide, Wildlife-Friendly Gardens Guide and a list of native plant nurseries.
• Butterfly Conservation SA has great info on attracting native butterflies to your garden by providing the right caterpillar food plants.
• Nature Play SA has beautiful downloadable checklists full of ideas to get kids and families outside, connecting with nature.

The vision: Sharing & caring. Community together. A voice for nature.

Being part of a thriving, sustainable community starts with simple actions. When we share, swap, give, or ask, we strengthen our connections and support a culture that cares for both people and the planet.

Are you connected to your community? Feeling grounded in the places we call home helps us build resilience and a sense of belonging. Get involved locally, whether through neighbourhood activities, natural spaces, community groups or building neighbourhood connections.

Do you use your voice for the environment? When we speak up, we can influence the big environmental challenges facing our world. Adding your voice, even in small ways, contributes to collective action and meaningful change.

Sharing tips

• Help create new social norms by asking others for things you might need. Be generous with what you have – sharing inspires others to do the same. Try your local Buy Nothing Group.

Community tips

• Contact your local council to discover volunteering opportunities that match your interests.
• Councils, community centres, environment centres, and libraries offer different environmental workshops and activities.
• Living locally brings many eco-benefits including discovering local natural spaces, meeting others, building resilience and reducing transport emissions.

Speaking up tips

• It's easier to speak up for the environment when you're part of a group. Find others with similar interests and work together for positive change.
• A powerful advocacy tool is to provide feedback (good or bad) to formal consultations by completing surveys and writing submissions. The more voices our decision makers hear the better the outcomes for the environment!
• Support climate and nature advocacy groups and add your voice to a bigger movement.
• One of the most impactful things you can do is reaching out to your local member of parliament with a simple message asking them to prioritise environmental protection and climate action. Remember they are there to represent you.

Some favourite sharing, community & speaking-up links

Sharing

• Buy Nothing groups are super local groups where people offer and ask for all kinds of things, all for free. Creating super local sharing communities, keeping things out of landfill and helping us all to buy less NEW. Find your local group by putting 'Buy Nothing' and then your suburb name into the Facebook search function.
• Do you have a Street Library near you? What about a library of things (like Blackwood)? Or discover the range of things available to borrow through your local library.
• Seek out a local produce swap, such as the Seacliff Community Produce Swap.

Community

• Get inspired by Adelaide people doing cool things in their local neighbourhoods as Street Champions with In Our Street.
• Explore environmental volunteering within the City of Holdfast Bay.
• Discover conservation groups within the City of Marion and ways to take action locally in Marion.
• The Green Adelaide volunteering guide covers volunteering opportunities across Adelaide.
• Subscribe to the City of Marion Green Thymes newsletter for local eco updates.
• Find your nearest Environment Centre.
• Sustainable Communities SA support lots of great projects including produce swaps, repair cafes, local action groups and more.

Speak up

• Host a Climate for Change conversation with a trained facilitator and your family or friends.
• Key advocacy groups to support include Australian Conservation Foundation, Climate Council and Conservation Council SA.
• Join a local group of Parents for Climate.

The vision: Grow & share. Local food. Composting.

A Beautiful Local Environment includes people who grow food, are mindful of what they buy, seek out local produce and are careful to minimise food waste.

It's also a place where food scraps are composted and transformed into healthy soil.

Food & composting tips

Food scraps are a valuable resource and should not be treated as rubbish! Keeping food waste out of landfill reduces methane emissions while creating valuable compost and mulch right here in SA. The simplest option is to use your green lidded FOGO (Food Organics Garden Organics) bin. All organic material is good to go including:

• fruit and veg scraps,
• old bread and leftovers,
• expired dairy, meat scraps and bones,
• tissues, paper towel, small scraps of paper or shredded paper,
• pet poo, compostable kitty litter and straw animal bedding.

Or compost at home — using a compost bin, worm farm, bokashi system or even chickens.

Wasting food also wastes the time, resources, energy, water, land and fuel used to produce and distribute it. These simple habits can make a big difference:

• Use what you've already got first,
• Shop with a list (and stick to it),
• Plan one 'leftovers' night each week,
• Store food properly to help it last longer,
• Freeze food if you won't use it in time.

Other ways to help:

• Eat less meat. Reducing the amount of red meat in our diets can have a big eco-impact.
• Grow something you can eat. Start with some fresh herbs, leafy greens or summer tomatoes.
• Join a community garden to learn gardening skills while spending time with others.

Some favourite food & composting links

• Kick start your veggie patch with the book "1 Magic Square" by Lolo Houbein.
• We love this 'what to plant when' guide for the Adelaide plains – print it off and stick it up somewhere handy.
• Gardening Australia is a trusted source of great info for growing food and composting at home.
• Join Grow It Local to access online workshops, seasonal seeds and more.
• Head to your local council website to find community gardens near you.

Coming soon — please check back shortly.

While recycling is a great place to start, it's a terrible place to stop. Remember to SPEAK UP, REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE and REPAIR first.

RRRRR tips

• If you're sick of seeing so much waste and packaging, why not try writing a quick email to the supermarket, big companies or your Federal MP. Use your voice as a consumer and a citizen. This is how we can influence big changes.
• When it comes to all the 'stuff' in our lives, a great way to reduce our environmental impact is to simply buy less. Choose quality over quantity, think carefully about what you really need, source second hand, and share with others.
• Avoid single use items such as bottled water, shopping bags, coffee cups and takeaway packaging. Be organised and BYO!
• Look for less packaged items when buying groceries. Buy your fruit and veg loose, BYO bags, take your own containers, or buy in bulk.
• Take a good look at what's in your bin and see if there are things you can go without / buy less often or find a lower waste alternative.

Some of our favourite RRRRR links

• Refuse Reduce Reuse Recycle in Adelaide is a fabulous Facebook group.
• Head to your local council website for recycling information specific to your area.
• Find out what goes where with Which bin.
• There are lots of repair cafes across Adelaide, helping you to fix and mend.
• Find your local Buy Nothing group by putting 'Buy Nothing' and then your suburb name into the Facebook search function.
• Take the challenge and reduce single use plastics with Plastic Free July.
• And here's a Plastic Free Shopping Guide for Adelaide (source: portenvironmentcentre.org.au) (please check first as things change).